Rebel Angel
by agrader
Summary: In 1982, a special mission unites former and present Angels, and leads Tiffany into a love affair, which helps all of the Angels to rethink their attitudes to men and find the loves of their lives.


Opening Narrative: Once upon a time there were six little girls: Three from Season 1, the others from Seasons 2, 4 and 5. But I'm a dirty old shallow, fickle, promiscuous man, who used to be a dentist. So I can't show you my face on television. And now they work for me. My name is Charlie.

One morning, in 1982, at 6:00am…

Julie Rogers awoke to the familiar sound of her alarm clock, and leapt out of bed, throwing off the blanket and sheet, giving herself no chance to accidentally doze off. For the next sixty seconds, she stood in the middle of the carpet, performing a series of exercises, not with numerous repetitions, just enough to make her feel awake, alive, and ready to face the day ahead. 18 months ago, she'd been an up and coming model in her mid 20s. Now she was approaching 27, comfortable with the change that she'd made in joining the Charles Townsend Detective Agency … and she was thinking about The Guy.

Every morning, Julie took an early run along the beach, her round generous breasts pushing high on her figure against a tight bikini and her long dark hair swinging in the wind. For the last few weeks, The Guy had been there, sitting on a moss covered rock at the edge of the sand, halfway along the beach, with his feet just touching the sand. He had rotated about six different plain coloured shirts, which suited him well, wore a mixture of business like trousers and more casual pants, and would add a coat and tie on the cooler days.

He looked tall, most likely an inch taller than she was, and seemed to be in his twenties as well. The Guy was pale skinned, without the slightest hint of the tan he might have acquired (had he come to the beach later in the day), pleasantly clean shaved, wore glasses with rectangular silver lenses, had a neat part in his hair on the left side, and was, in Julie's most definite opinion, deliciously cute.

Julie had 20/20 vision, and no need for glasses. The Guy's use of spectacles in no way diminished his cuteness. Perhaps it even enhanced it. Yet Julie was able to look at him each day from a distance as her morning jog brought her closer to his spot. She would see him looking in her direction when she was fifteen meters away, and then, as she drew closer, frequently turning his head to look out at sea, as though he were trying to hide his interest in her and present himself as merely a connoisseur of ocean scenery. As she passed him, he would look up, catch the smiles she offered him, and perhaps then wonder how much to read into those smiles, and then turn away.

Julie came to a decision, as she began this new day's walk. Charlie Townsend has asked the Angels to be in the office promptly that morning, for a very important assignment. She could not see herself being fully focussed on the job, if she were still wondering where she stood with The Guy. It was time to employ a slight dose of role play.

The tall athletic Model turned Angel waited until she drew close to The Guy's position. Should she do it before she passed him? No. It would look too obvious. But then, if she did it afterwards, it would be less credible too. She needed a reason for the mistake she was about to feign. She would have to do it just as she passed him, using his presence as a reason to turn her head and …

Julie Rogers kept her peripheral vision on the lookout for some slightly uneven sand surface, saw some a few meters in front of her, almost level with The Guy, turned her head to give him the traditional acknowledgement (which would hopefully account for her not seeing where she was going) and then let her toes sink in, stopping her abruptly and pretended to trip over, landing in the sand on her left side.

She was, as planned, unhurt, but The Guy must be led to think otherwise. She gave a slight groan, sat up a little, and looked at her foot. Julie then heard footsteps in the sand beside her.

"Gotcha!" she thought.

The Guy came hurriedly over to her.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I … I think so," said Julie.

"Can I help you up?" asked The Guy.

"I thought you'd never ask," said Julie, who secretly imputed more than one meaning to that statement.

The Guy helped her to her feet and over to the rock. Julie pretended to limp. The Guy knelt down and examined her foot.

"It's not showing any bruising, but sometimes they take a while to form. My car's just up on the road. Can I give you a lift anywhere?"

"Thank you," said Julie, "I was going to change, and then go to work. I'm Julie, Julie Rogers."

"You're welcome. I'm Rhys Ridge."

"Are you a doctor?" she asked, recalling his quick study of her foot's condition.

"No. I'm a scientist. I have a government contract, but I fill at home. The downstairs has been converted to a laboratory," said Rhys.

Ridge and Rogers? She liked the sound of it, even though it meant that she would not be calling him The Guy anymore.

"Sounds exciting. I'm a detective with the Townsend Agency," said Julie.

"I don't know if you're comfortable with me learning your address. Would you prefer it if I dropped you near a bus stop?"

"There wouldn't be much point in the lift then. I'm in walking distance of the beach, and you've been there every day for weeks without doing me any harm," said Julie, "Besides, if you drop me away from home, you won't be able to help me cook and taste test my seasoned bacon on toast."

Julie was thinking like a detective. Once you've made your initial contact, don't let the suspect get away. Carry out your investigation. Do everything you could to accomplish your assignment … which in this case, was to learn whether the deliciously cute Rhys Ridge was just being a gentleman or whether he was sufficiently keen on you too.

"I'd love some," said Rhys, "Here's the car."

She navigated the small drive to her seaside apartment, feeling pleased that Charlie Townsend paid as well as modelling had once done.

Rhys helped her into the elevator, as she maintained the ruse of the limp, went into her apartment, sat on the stool and guided him into the preparation of the aforementioned breakfast treat.

Don't let the suspect get away. Don't let him avoid the question, Julie told herself.

"You would have made a good doctor," she said, "It certainly doesn't feel broken. I'm just not sure I should count on it to operate the foot pedals in the car. I guess I could use that lift to the bus stop after all."

"I can take you to work if you like," said Rhys.

Bingo.

Bosley put Charlie Townsend on speaker phone and waited for all of the Angels to arrive. Kelly Garrett and Chris Munroe were there as usual, along with Chris's older sister Jill, Sabrina Duncan and Tiffany Welles, who had all flown in by special request of Charlie Townsend to help with a big case. From his unknown location, the mysterious and as yet unidentified Charlie Townsend spoke to the returning Angels first, catching up with Sabrina, Tiffany and Jill and allowing them to catch up with each other in the process.

"I take it we're still waiting for Julie," said Charlie.

"Yes Charlie," said Bosley.

"Not any more," said Julie, and came limping into the office with the help of a man!

"Julie, what happened?" asked Kelly.

"I tripped on a sand hazard on the beach," said Julie, "This is Rhys, who helped me."

"Nice to meet you," said Chris, "Jill and I are having a welcome back dinner at my place after work. I'll write down my address if you'd like to join Bosley and the rest of us at 6:30 tonight."

"Could you make it?" asked Julie, as Rhys helped her to a seat.

"Sure, thanks, both of you," said Rhys, turning to John Bosley, "You must be Bosley, but I thought I heard another man in here."

"Charlie's here in audio spirit, courtesy of speakerphone, if not in person," said Bosley.

"It's nice to be visited by a guy we can see occasionally," said Jill.

"Well I'd better be going then," said Rhys, taking a piece of paper from Chris and walking out the front door. Bosley shut the door, and waited.

"I take it that all Angels are now present and accounted for," said Charlie.

"All here Charlie," said Julie.

"This case is special to me, and when I explain it, I hope it will be to you too," said Charlie, "Over the last five or six years, I have received several, in my opinion, unwarranted complaints from people about the methods of the Angels during cases. Most of them were from criminals attempting to pervert justice and avoid convictions. Others were just from shady opportunists. I thought it best that you be kept unaware of these attempted hindrances, while I had them quoshed by the largest and best legal firm in the city: Pygar, Meriwether and Tompkins. They've dealt quickly and effectively with dozens of instances, making sure that they never even made it to court."

"But now you're telling us," said Sabrina, wondering if a legal Angels issue had finally come up, which the lawyers were unable to smooth over.

"Yes, Angel, because now they need our help," said Charlie, "Someone, presumably an insider, has managed to embezzle a fortune from the firm, without being caught. I need every one of you working the case: Julie, Kelly and Chris in the obvious open roles as my three current regular Angels, Jill posing as a wealthy client with enough money to tempt the embezzler, Tiffany joining the firm as an office assistant, and Sabrina representing opposing counsel in Jill's matter. Bosley will coordinate things from here. Are there any questions, Angels?"

After a brief silent interlude, Kelly said, "None, Charlie. I guess we'll just have to hope one of us turns up a lead or manages to draw out the thief."

"Good luck, Angels. I'll be in touch," said Charlie, and hung up.

"Let's go then," said Julie, and walked over to the drinks bar to quickly partake of a glass of water.

"How fast thy limp healeth," said Tiffany.

"Did you really trip in the sand?" asked Kelly.

"Well, I did my best to look like it," said Julie, "I'm planning for it to have healed by the time I see him tonight."

"I think we'll all have to start jogging on the beach from now on," said Jill, "Who goes in first on the case, Bos?"

"Your appointment has been arranged for 11:00am today. The overt Angels will go in to talk to Miss Tompkins at 10:15 and then start examining the place and openly questioning staff, to make the embezzler feel uneasy about them. Hopefully Jill or Tiffany might have a chance to catch him out while he's busy looking at the regular three over his shoulder. Sabrina will come in when the lawyers want to have a meeting. The case is designed to be a drawn out one: divorce. You just have to pretend that your ex husband drove you out of a car racing career and into his kitchen. Tiffany will be inducted with the usual new staff orientation process as soon as she heads in there now."

Tiffany was soon welcomed into the firm by Mr Pygar, who asked a young paralegal named Ike to show her the ropes and get her started on his clerical needs.

"I hope he's not the embezzler," thought Tiffany, "He looks to be of the same stuff as Julie's nice new guy. Something tells me, we'd better help set the romantic scene up for Rhys tonight at Chris's place."

For most of the day, the ruses were played out effectively. Eventually things came to a head, when Tiffany Welles unearthed enough well hidden evidence that another of the paralegals, a middle aged man named Dugan was the embezzler. Dugan pushed Tiffany aside and ran around the corner towards Ike's desk. Seeing Ike standing over his desk, Dugan grabbed Ike's shirt collar from behind, pulled a gun out of his coat's inner pocket, and pressed the gun to Ike's head.

"Now you all back off!" said Dugan, "I've shunted that dough offshore, and if I can't take any more, then all I want is to get out of this country and spend it.

Tiffany recovered quickly and came running in with a gun. From other parts of the office, Kelly, Chris and Julie completed a square of guns pointing at Dugan. Jill had been describing her fictitious divorce to Ike for hours, while Ike had drafted paperwork and Tiffany had begun typing it. Jill had just been leaving when the fracas began. Now she too turned, and pointed a gun at Dugan.

"What, you too!" said Dugan.

"Afraid so," said Jill, "It looks like you can't get away."

"Neither can Ike," said Dugan, "But I will get out of here, with him as a shield. You're such a great team if it takes three or more of you to hold one of me at bay."

Tiffany looked at Ike anxiously.

"Let's just let him go," she said.

"That could put a dent in the raise I was after, with all the money he's taken," said Ike, and suddenly pivoted his head enough to dodge any sudden gunfire from Dugan (which was all it took, when a gun was pressed right up against the back of one's skull). Ike grabbed and twisted Dugan's wrist, until he dropped the gun, and then Ike lowered his centre of gravity below Dugan's, and flipped the thief over his shoulder and onto the pile of paperwork that Ike and Tiffany had been working on since just before the other staff had taken their lunch breaks."

"It's OK," said Jill, "I'm actually too Angelic to be divorced this young. It was just part of our cover."

"And yours too?" said Ike, looking at Tiffany.

"I know. It's a shame you have to lose a new legal clerk. I found you easy to work for," said Tiffany.

"But how did you do all that?" asked Kelly, "Do you moonlight at the police academy?"

"No, just with some active friends who've been well trained," said Ike. Most of the Angels were quick to mop up the case and leave the offices of Pygar, Meriwether and Tompkins. Tiffany stayed on, making any excuse, like typing a detailed report of the case, helping Ike to clean up his desk and so on. Ike was polite, but didn't show the slightest inkling of romantic behaviour towards Tiffany.

Eventually he had to lock up the office and leave, and showed Tiffany out.

All she could do was head for Chris's place and arrive slightly late. Julie and Rhys were talking with Jill and Sabrina, who were taking their first opportunity to get to know the newest angel, with whom they'd never worked before. Sabrina joked about being disappointed that the case was solved before she could go into her role play. Tiffany took her opportunity to get to know Sabrina and Julie too, while making Rhys feel like part of the family.

"Look at them all," said Kelly to Bosley, "You and I are the only ones who've been part of the team since Day 1."

"And Charlie," said Bosley.

"I guess he's a vocal part of the team," said Kelly.

By the time Tiffany had arrived, the others had been eating and drinking and talking amidst the background music for quite some time. Now Chris came over to Kelly and Bosley.

"I think Rhys would like to dance with Julie, if someone set a precedent," said Chris, "I'm going to turn up the music, and then rejoin the others. Could you come over and ask me to dance, Bos?"

"Old Silvershoes has never let the team down yet," said Bosley.

Chris decided to put on a more romantic music cassette as well, and then waited for Bosley to play his role.

"That looks like fun," said Julie shortly afterwards, keen to give Rhys his cue.

"I wasn't sure if your foot had recovered enough for me to be asking you to dance," said Rhys, "Would you like to join me? I'll be careful not to step on your feet."

"I think I'll be fine with dancing," said Julie, "My foot settled down long before the case was over."

Rhys led her to the dancing area, close to the fireplace, and they were soon dancing closely together, with their arms around each other, and their cheeks touching. Julie felt Rhys's gentle body pressed against her breasts and warmed to his touch even more.

After a while, Chris whispered to Bosley.

"I think it's a good time for us to tire of dancing and leave them alone together," she said, "But thanks for your help … Silvershoes."

The others had moved into the dining room and were talking with Tiffany around the table, sitting comfortably and out of earshot of the two young lovers.

"I wish I'd had as much success as Julie," said Tiffany, "Ike was pleasant, polite, easy to work for, and charming. Yet I just couldn't gauge the slightest reaction from him, not matter what signals or encouragement I gave him. I can't just make a big thing of it with Charlie's legal firm being his workplace. I don't know what to do."

"Maybe we can make a little thing of it, and do a little more investigation in Pygar, Meriwether & Tompkins," said Sabrina.

"Would you really?" asked Tiffany, "I like this guy, I really do. He doesn't treat a secretary or clerk like part of the furniture nor someone he thinks he can buy."

"Angels, we have a new case," said Jill.

"And the client seeks a happy settlement with the strong possibility of romancing the suspect," added Chris.

Being together, with their friends around them brought out the best in these two sisters.

"Bosley, you have to keep hush to Charlie," said Sabrina, "If you spoil someone else's romance, your turn may never come."

"You have my word on silence, but please, be discrete," said Bosley.

The next day, Ike finished a solid morning's work, walked out of the office, down to the street, and saw Sabrina, Jill, Chris and Kelly waiting.

"Any chance we could have lunch together and celebrate yesterday's closing of the case?" asked Sabrina.

The day before, she'd found herself left out of the picture, but now her old days of leading the team for three years were coming back to her in leaps and bounds.

"I guess so," said Ike, "I was just heading for the outdoor food court in the next block."

"That's fine with us," said Kelly.

Soon they had all ordered their lunch and were beginning to eat.

"We actually came to ask you about Tiffany," said Chris, "She really likes you, but she doesn't know where she stands. Ordinarily, she'd just come straight out and ask, but our boss is one of your oldest clients, and we've just learned this week how much we owe your firm for enabling us to continue our work unhindered."

"Meriwether handled most of Charles Townsend's matters," said Ike, "I mainly do family law."

Was he avoiding the question? Jill followed her sister's lead, and prompted Ike again for an answer.

"We thought we could find out and go back and let Tiffany down gently for you, if that's what you wanted us to do. Besides, most guys find at least one of us attractive."

"You're all pretty girls, and Tiffany especially. I don't want to offend you. I just don't think you're my type," said Ike, "I don't even know if my type exists."

"That sounds like an outlook that really narrows the field," said Sabrina, "Can you describe your type?"

"Not without a long sermon," said Ike.

"I don't think we've ever had a preacher for a client," said Kelly, "So it's an opportunity to be having lunch with one. The floor is yours."

"I guess it all started around 6000 years ago, with another angel," said Ike, "According to Bible prophecy, which history has proved to be 100% accurate in predicting the things that have happened on earth, God created millions of angels. The most beautiful of all angels and the most powerful was Lucifer. He was history's first self-inflicted victim of delusions of mass grandeur. He became puffed up with pride, thought he was more powerful than his own creator. Around the time that God was creating this world and the skies and stars, Lucifer made war against God, trying to take over Heaven. There was war in heaven, with a third of all the angels taking Lucifer's side. They were defeated and cast down to earth. The other rebel angels became invisible demons, walking the earth looking for damage to do to God's creation, but it was their leader Lucifer who took the new name of Satan, or the Devil, and set out to destroy God's creation, by corrupting God's created humans down here. So he originated the occult with several lies to Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Devil's promise of secret knowledge by eating of the forbidden fruit was the origin of all psychic powers and tarot readings today. The Devil's promise that eating of the fruit would make one like God … well that originated the New Age false teaching today, that God is not a separate divine being, just someone who represents the collective consciousness of the whole world's population. It leads to the false idea that we don't have a separate creator being and can't sin against him. Eve took the fruit, and ate it, and led her husband down the same path, and from then on there was suffering and sickness and misery and strife and war and famine and every other adversity in the world, because of the way sin entered the world, not inflicted on us unfairly by God, but the natural result of our free choice to rebel against God. We're all born into that now. Even back in Eden, Jesus stepped in with a plan to live and minister on earth 4000 years later, 2000 years ago for us, and be the perfect sacrifice for our sins, to bridge the gap between us and heaven. Since that event (the death and resurrection of Christ), we are once again able to look forward to eternal life without all those adversities, but only if we accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour."

"Is this likely to go on for the rest of the afternoon," said Jill, "All we asked was why Tiffany didn't seem to be your type. She was your typist for a day."

"Well jump forward in time to the last prophecied period in human history: 1798 to the day of Jesus' second coming," said Ike, "Knowing his time was short, the devil has increased his attack on those who spread the Christian message of repentance and forgiveness. He found a most effective agent too. Before World War Two even started, a man named Alester Crowley claimed to hear the voice of the Devil, to have made deals with the Devil. You may think, as I do, that his claims were true. Or you may think he's a first class nut. In either case, would you want to take your cues from someone who CLAIMS to have spoken and dealt with Satan, the arch enemy of God?"

"He wouldn't be on my party list," said Kelly, "But what's he done?"

"He claims that he asked the Devil for power and help to destroy the family unit and the spread of the Christian message down from parents to children, to unite eastern mysticism and New Age philosophy with Western Occult practices, to do everything possibly to prove, as he put it, that Christianity has had its day. His tactics have worked. People don't automatically go to church and send their kids to Sabbath School or Sunday School anymore. Crowley got his power from Satan to influence the secular entertainment industry to create movies that helped the sexual revolution he started in the last two decades. The do what feels good motto has overridden God's commands. He started the drug revolution too. He did one more thing. Alester Crowley, not a group of battered wives, not a group of career minded women, but Alester Crowley, a man, not a woman started the Women's Liberation Movement. It completely undermines the Biblical principles in the New Testament of wives submitting to their husbands, and of women not having authority over men."

"I'm not staying around for any more of this sexist misogynist dummy talk," said Jill, and got up to leave.

"Jill, he's only answering our question," said Chris, "It is stuff I've never heard before. It makes me think."

"It makes me leave," said Jill, "Get a life and dump your religious conspiracy theories, Ike. You're not going to change any of this. It's well into society now."

"Exactly as Satan and Crowley wanted it, just like your hostility to having it pointed out," said Ike, and looked to see if the others were going to stay on and listen.

"Why are you so sure that the Feminist Movement has been such a bad thing?" asked Sabrina.

"Men were supposed to be Biblical servant leaders," said Ike, "Not wife bashers, not adulterers cheating with their secretaries, not bullies, but selfless servant leaders. Every man who rejected God's commands on that subject has fuelled the fire for Crowley's evil work. How easy it must have been for women to become career minded, independent, and lose their God given and God intended femininity. They've been commandeering all the white collar jobs, and then looking down on men who can't support them. In blind rebellion against God's framework for male leadership, they've created unworkable office politics, whenever they have positions of authority. I've had three jobs since I left school. In this one I've had a male supervisor, and found it easy to advance from a mere clerk to the position I have now. In the first job, I had a female superior and the trouble was endless. In the middle job, over time I had both, and the comparison certainly supported my point. Feminism accelerates the destruction of marriages. Yes men get their role wrong some times, but the false solution of women usurping men's roles is feeding Satan's agenda. It makes the problem far worse, not better. Perhaps the worst of it all is that the gender biased sexual harrassment laws can penalize a person merely for asking someone else out the first time in the workplace. So if I liked someone at my firm, I would be taking a gamble by speaking up. If she liked me, I have a date. If she didn't, I have a harrassment complaint to deal with and possibly lose my job. I wouldn't be being punished for my behaviour, but for someone else's response to it. Would should I have to take responsibility for someone else's feelings? If I asked repetitively after being told no, then I'd be inviting discipline, but I shouldn't cop it for asking once to find out where I stand. It's evil, Satanic, and born of all the vicious hatred that Alester Crowley sought to stir up between men and women."

"I can probably stretch myself to understand some of your grievances," said Chris, "But you haven't had those experiences with Tiffany or us."

"You all radiated feminism the moment you came into the office. I didn't even know you were all part of Townsend's team, but the similarities were unmistakable, exactly what I don't like seeing on TV either. I even liked the Wonder Woman show until halfway through the second season (the first year when the show was set in present day instead of World War Two), when Lynda Carter stopped playing Diana Prince and started playing Lynda Carter. But it didn't start with Wonder Woman. It started with Crowley and Satan. My type would be a soft sweet feminine supportive lifelong adoring woman of the old days, before Crowley got his way."

"Yet you've prejudged all of us," said Sabrina, "How could you tell from when we first walked in?"

"I watch British shows too, uninfluenced by Crowley's supernatural control of Hollywood. Have you seen British and Australian female characters wearing long neck to mid-calf shorts sleeved flowery colourful feminine dresses, and white shoes instead of high brown boots? It makes all the visual difference in the world. The clothes your team arrived in yesterday, the clothes you're wearing now, look as unnatural to me as a man in a dress. I'm just not turned on, regardless of how pretty Tiffany is."

"Those fashions are fading out," said Sabrina, "You could adapt to the times."

"But why are they fading out?" said Ike, not surprised that Sabrina had been the first to challenge him, "She seemed unlikely to ever wear something feminine.

"I just don't want to wear those things all the time now," said Sabrina.

"Neither do I," said Kelly, who was currently dressed in a black jumper and trousers.

"A suit was designed for a man's body, not a woman's, which looks natural in a dress. What I saw all day yesterday in Tiffany was a woman pretending to be a man."

"Well she wasn't there for your visual turn on. She was there to do a job," said Kelly.

"And yet here you all are, inquiring about what turns me off?" said Ike.

"Do you want us all to be tea ladies and primary school teachers?" asked Sabrina.

Ike began to suspect that Sabrina would be the next most likely of the Angels to depart in a huff, with Jill already gone and apparently not thinking better of it and returning.

"You're detectives, and good ones at that. You fixed all our problems in one day," said Ike, "But why do you have to do it in coats and trousers? That English girl did some of the best martial arts kicks I've seen in beautiful dresses, when they brought back that sixties spy show in 1976, with her as the new leading lady."

"You've practically tried to argue that women are all pawns of this Crowley, because they've stereotyped all men as wife bashers," said Kelly, "Yet you've tagged us all as icy feminists, when you haven't seen Julie with her date last night, and you don't know Tiffany at all."

"She had a coat and trousers, and the same manner as you three," said Ike, "What is so obnoxious to you about the thought of having come down here in an elegant feminine dress instead of that outfit?"

"I'm not comfortable with it that often," said Kelly, her streetwise face becoming more taught with building annoyance.

"That's hardly an answer," said Ike, "Why don't you feel comfortable with dresses?"

"Fear!" said Kelly, "Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Fear of what?" asked Ike.

"Fear of being attractive, being inviting, being a magnet for every sleazy guy with only one thing on his mind."

Yet even as she said it, Kelly acknowledged bitterly in her mind, that for the last six years, she and her partners seemed to have drawn out every selfish, un-giving, unloving man around. Most of their love interests had quickly turned out to be either criminals or men who just lacked the character to show their care for a woman. Was it because of the image the Angels themselves were constantly projecting? She'd never considered it before. Julie was the only one who'd had a real success, and she'd had a different background to the other five angels. She'd come, not from the feminist (as Ike would surely put it) environment of the Police Academy, but from the more feminine school of modelling, which encouraged girls to embrace high fashion and elegance and daintiness. Julie had shown incredible flair for adapting to the needs of Charlie's business. Yet now she was courting a dreamboat, and these three were caught in a contentious debate with a politically incorrect, yet very knowledgeable paralegal.

"Is that how you and Tiffany perceive me?" asked Ike, "Did you all come down here to find out what prospects lay in store for Tiffany with a sleazy guy who has only one thing on his mind?"

"No," said Kelly.

It was the single quietest word she'd uttered in the last six years.

Ike saw the time to bring his point home as gently as possible.

"Then why dress for the worst likelihood? Why emanate the least hope for happiness? Don't you stand a better chance of getting what people think you're going for?... I'm sorry. I wanted you to understand, but I didn't mean to …"

Kelly was wiping a tear. She was also remembering Beamish, and other parts of her early life.

"If you're right about this Crowley, I hope you're right about God too. I've just realised in the last few minutes how little I know of the girl I used to be."

Chris put her arm around Kelly and looked at Ike.

"We were warned it'd be sermon. I, for one, won't complain," said Chris, "But it's a lot to take in and think about. If we told Tiffany you like dresses and dropped a few other hints, would you see your way to coming by the Townsend office one lunch time and asking her out to dinner? In her case, I think she already has the qualities you look for. But after a year of working with us, she just didn't think of them applying to a trip to your office to solve a case."

"I would like that. I have thought about her a lot," said Ike, "I'd better get back to the office, or Mr Pygar's going to be ticked off with me."

"What was she like?" asked Sabrina.

"Tiffany?" said Ike, with a confused look.

"No. The … err… feminist who hurt you. You must have had some good reason to study Crowley's legacy."

"Very beautiful, very assertive, and she saw my softer side as something to be trampled into the ground, before an 18 year old boy in his first job ever found the courage to ask her out," said Ike, "But I'm not blinded by that. I still believe the Bible's right, though I didn't mean to upset you, Miss Garrett. Order all the cold fruit juice you'd like on me."

Ike left a monetary note on the table and waved goodbye to the Angels from the far side of the food court.

"You OK, Kelly?" asked Chris, "Last year you were targeted by a killer in a dating service, shot by the guy Bosley stopped and now this."

"I think I will be OK," said Kelly, "It's Sabrina who's gone very silent."

Here they were, the Angels who had worked together in Kelly's second and third years on the team.

"I was just remembering that time I had to talk to my ex-husband on a case we were working for Charlie," said Sabrina, "He told me he was worried for my safety, and I quipped back at him with, 'And that's why we don't play house anymore'. Has this Crowley stuff crept up on all of society's women so slowly that we've all just built it into the way we've been raised? Have we forgotten how to be ladies?"

"Would he take you back now?" asked Kelly.

"I broke his heart. He said that couldn't be undone, even if I ever reached the point when I wanted to try. He told me to remember that. There is someone else I've missed though. I just hope I haven't left it too late with him either."

"But there's no-one else except Charlie and … Bosley!" said Chris, "How long?"

"Always, I guess," said Sabrina, "I just wasn't willing to lean on him, or on anyone. Yet after three years of leading detectives in the field, I wasn't fulfilled. I went looking elsewhere, and it made no difference. Then Charlie called me back, and it seemed to come naturally."

"I wouldn't believe we're letting one outspoken religious guy redefine who we are, if I hadn't seen the very emptiness he left us to think on for over four years," said Chris.

"I think he was advising us to do our own reinvention of ourselves," said Sabrina.

"With God pointing the way, through him, you mean?" said Kelly.

"That's all he seemed to be doing. He does like Tiffany, and he didn't force himself on any of us," said Chris, "I'm tired of having this invisible wall around myself, only to learn that a man built it for bad reasons, rather than a woman building it to protect me. I remember another beach, a beach I was ironically walking along at a time when I wasn't remembering anything."

"I'll talk to Tiffany," said Kelly, "Then there's a certain beachfront property that comes to my mind too."

They finished their pineapple and lime juice, which they'd acquired during their conversation, and Kelly headed over to Tiffany Welles' house.

Sabrina went home first, and then on to the office, where Bosley and Jill were working on the accounts.

"Has he floated back up to heaven yet?" asked Jill.

"I think he shared a glimpse of the place with all of us," said Sabrina, "Can I take over here, and help Bosley get this finished off?"

"Sure," said Jill, "I'll be heading back to Europe tomorrow anyway. It was good catching up with you, by and large."

Jill was too used to having her own way, by her own means, that she would take a lot longer to see the lack of fulfilment in what it brought her. When a caring suitor came along, who would put her needs first, she'd be too busy trying to prove her own strength to lean on some of his. She was soon out of the office altogether, and gone.

"I missed you most of all, Scarecrow," said Sabrina.

There was something different about her demeanour, something Bosley had never seen before in his original three years of working with her, and not on this case until now. It gave him a calm sense of hope for something even he had not been consciously aware had lingered in the recesses of his mind for years.

"As old Silvershoes, I would have expected to be the Tin Woodman," said Bosley, "But would Dorothy care to go out to dine?"

Sabrina put her hand on Bosley's and gave him a nervous smile.

Chris drove somewhat frantically, not wanting to wait another 24 hours to get to the beach, should the sun go down on her hopes. She got there with an hour of sunlight left, and ran to the cove that she had been to only once before, when she had been suffering temporary amnesia.

Her eyes lit up with hope, as she saw a volleyball game in motion. She ran towards the section of sand that served as a court, and looked around. One of the other players remembered her from the time she had stumbled into their lives.

"Doesn't he play anymore?" asked Chris.

"Yes, but he left a few minutes ago, that way," said the man, pointing.

Chris ran up the sandy pathway, oblivious to the green growth on either side, and soon saw a man who was almost at the end of the path. She was exhausted.

"Please wait!" she called.

The man turned around and looked back. He started walking towards her, and then recognised her.

"Chris!" he said, and ran to her, "What brought you here so late in the day?"

"I had to find more than just the solutions to cases, had to do more, be more than someone who shoots at criminals and plays roles to gain information. I had to find … you … if you want me to."

"I didn't think I'd have the chance," he said, and put his arms around her.

This was a man who had shown her kindness and protection, when she had lost her identity on that beach three years earlier. Now that Chris Munroe had embraced her womanhood, he would be the man who would be there for her forever. She would still work with her friends at the Townsend Detective Agency, but she would come home to him.

As the representative of the Ike's Feelings Case, Kelly dined at Tiffany's and left out all of the antagonistic parts of the conversation with Ike. She merely told Tiffany that Ike had let slip his Christian beliefs, his desire for a slightly shy, very feminine girl who wore long dresses and leaned on him a little.

"I wouldn't tell you how to live your life, to change to someone you don't want to be, but it's really up to you. Is it someone that you could want to be?" asked Kelly.

"What would you think?" asked Tiffany.

"I think it's who you are already. You were just wearing your Sabrina & Kelly & Jill & Chris Uniform at Ike's office yesterday, and he didn't recognise you."

"It would be nice to be a fashion girl all the time," said Tiffany, "I'm so glad he likes me too. I couldn't read him at all."

"I rang Charlie from my car phone on the way here. I'm taking tomorrow off," said Kelly, "And Jill's left, I just heard from Bosley. So the others would be glad to see you there in the morning at the office. If you stayed on permanently, you'd be working near a certain legal office regularly."

"I think I'll put that very prospect to Bosley in the morning," said Tiffany.

"I wouldn't put it to him tonight," said Kelly, "He and Sabrina might be unable to pick up telephones for hours."

"Oh," said Tiffany.

The next morning, Tiffany Welles, Sabrina Duncan, Chris Munroe and Julie Rogers reported to Bosley's office, and Bosley got Charlie on the phone.

"And how many Angels have I the pleasure of greeting today?" asked Charlie, "I know first hand that Kelly won't be in."

"Jill's gone back to Europe. Chris and Julie are here as usual, and Sabrina and Tiffany would like to sign up for regular case work again. Of course we've never had five regulars on the team before, but it's well within the budget, if you don't mind. It would give us the scope to take on more than one case at a time and reopen the Hawaiian branch we started last year," said Bosley.

"You don't have to sell me, Bosley. They've all shown their valuable input to the team time and time again. To tell you the truth, I found it hard, whenever I had to say goodbye to one of them. Now two out of those three have come back," said Charlie.

On yet another beach, Kelly was walking in the direction of a beachfront property, which was not a holiday house, but the regular residence of a family consisting of a mother, her temporarily abandoned and reunited son, and the man who had married her and welcomed the boy as his own. All of that had happened in 1976, when the boy was around 12 years old. Now he would be close to 18. That had been during Kelly's first year as a Townsend Detective Agency Angel. Since then she'd seen so much violence, murder, fraud, robbery and so much hurt. The only thing which might have reminded her that she had shared a special friendship with the boy had occurred only two years ago, when she had protected a boy from a violent abusive single father who worked on the police force. Yet she had become so saturated in the worst elements of her cases over the intervening years; that no such memory had been stirred.

On her way to Tiffany's place the night before, she had remembered this boy Skip from 1976, whom she'd taken to a fun park, with whom she'd shared a special story, and who had been tricked into accidentally grazing her with a bullet from a loaded gun. Ike's speech had brought it all back, and she needed to reconnect with the woman she had been: the woman who had looked after that boy while he was apparently orphaned, and the woman who had seen him accepted by his stepfather to be.

But it had been almost six years. Would they welcome an intrusion born of Kelly's need for positive nostalgia? She reached the spot and stood on the beach, staring up at the house. The family was probably happy together now. Was it right to encroach on their lives with her current state of mind?

"Kelly!" called a voice behind her.

She turned to see a much taller, older Skip than the boy she'd remembered come running out of the rolling surf towards her.

"Skip!" she said, and threw her arms around him, "You're still here. I'm so glad it's all worked out for you."

"I haven't seen you for so long. Would you like to walk on the rocks and catch up?" asked Skip.

"I think that's partly what I came for," said Kelly, "I've seen so many things in the last seven years, things that I don't want to plant in your kind young mind. I needed to see something nice, and this place came to the front of my mind."

"I've seen a few things I didn't like at school too. I'm glad I've just finished," said Skip.

Back at the Townsend Agency, there was a knock on the door at only 10:30 am.

Chris opened the door to Ike.

"I'm on my way to a court appearance, but I paced it out to make time to come here," said Ike, "Can I talk to Tiffany out the front quickly?"

"Sure. We're just doing staff admin work here. She won't miss a case briefing," said Chris, as Tiffany walked over towards the door and out the front with Ike.

"I guess your friends told you that they came to see me yesterday," said Ike, "I was wondering, … Would you like to go ice skating with me after a dinner together tonight?"

"I'd love to," said Tiffany.

"Has your stepfather been good to you?" asked Kelly.

"He's been great. He could have wanted me just for Mom's sake, but he didn't. He really wanted me because I'm me. Mom loves him all the more for that."

"I wish that just one of the men I'd met, on all my detective cases, had been a man who had your sweetness, your kindness and vulnerability," said Kelly, "I think it's changed me. I wanted to ask someone who knew me back in 1976 which parts of me seem different now. I knew I could trust you to give me a kind but honest answer."

"You don't seem different, except a little sad," said Skip, "I always loved you Kelly, like a boy back then, and like a young man now, I really love you."

This was not what she'd come for … or was it? She was wearing a dress that would even have stood up to Ike's most critical scrutiny … and despite the subconscious attempts of her invisible walls to rebuild themselves, there was something melting in her heart every time the boy said something pleasant to her. Why else had she taken a day off work and come here with such determination? She had done it remembering the boy she had loved as a nurse might love a child patient. Yet now she was here with the fully grown boy as he was now, and he had very much focussed all his love on her, as if the last five or six years had not dissolved away any of their special friendship, but merely ripened it into something greater.

"Skip, I'm an older lady, and a damaged one," said Kelly, "But I came here today, because I love you too."

Skip turned his face towards her and slowly lifted his hand towards her shoulder. Kelly helped him to draw closer to her, and their faces met for the softest kiss Kelly had ever known. At first she didn't want to let him go, because she was enjoying the kiss. Then, as she fully began to comprehend the effect of Crowley's legacy on the last six years of her life, she found herself sobbing, and didn't want him to see it.

Soon she was shaking so much, that he felt it, and drew back to look into her eyes.

"Have I done too much for the first time?" asked Skip.

"No, honey, not at all. The last few years have done too much. You're making it all better," said Kelly, "I didn't know I could hope for this. I just had to come and see you anyway."

Skip kissed her cheeks, and then waited to see what Kelly wanted to do. She gently leaned against him face and snuggled up close, as the sparkling water continued to splash lightly on the rocks in front of them.

Closing narrative: Once upon a time, there were six little girls, who went to the Detective Agency, and there they performed various challenging duties. But I corrupted all that, and now five of them are glad that they no longer work in any way for me. My name is Crowley.


End file.
